My thoughts on Watership down being shown at Easter

Ok so a few days ago the various online newspapers were full of headlines like the following ''Watership Down: Parents left 'horrified' as Channel 5 airs 'traumatic' film on Easter Sunday'' To put it as basically as possible some parents threw a bloody fit because Channel 5 showed WaterShip Down a film about the struggle undertaken by a group of rabits to escape from almost certain death and find a better way of life. It is a story which covers concepts such as loss, death, betrayel and a kind of rebirth (not of a person but of a society and a way of life) So as far as I am concerned I think its showing at easter was kind of appropriate. We have parents here saying its too bloody, well yes there is a lot of blood, there is to much death, yes death is in it to a fair degree, The film is a complete classic though as is the book it is based off of.

This is not the first time Watership down has caused controversy the very fact a lot of violence is in it and its a kids film with a Universal for everyone rating has caused more complaints to the British Board of Film Clasification than any other film, and I personall believe it needs a PG rating. Lets stop and remember though that while some parents are moaing about this others are telling there children the story of a man betrayed by his people, who is brutally tortured and nailed through his wrists to a wooden cross only to resurrect several days late, some are even taking them to churches to see statues depicting this, compared to this the bunny option doesnt sound to bad, let them deal with the death of a gold fish before you go telling them oh by the way the son of God got bruttaly knocked off.

So why are peole happy to tell there young kids the stories about JC and the sunshine gang? Well its because they believe that the stories have merit to them, they can be used to teach morals  and life lessons. Well I happen to think that the same can be said about Watership down so if your going to apply the above logic that a gory story can still be a good story if it has a purpose if it contains lessons that are worth learning.

I think part of the problem is that people are too easily offended coupled with the fact that everyone is now so used to shows like the X factor that they seem to think they can vote anything they dont like off of TV. Add to that the fact that some people dont seem to feel the need to raise there own children, they want to just throw them in front of the TV and let it do the job for them. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of the complaint didnt come from parents who had to get off there arse and deal with there child because something in the film upset them. A real parent would be there ready and willing to discuss anything which had a big impact on there child.

The whole thing is just a joke if we banned and censored everything someone had a problem with then there would never be anything on with any real worth, anything that makes a person think will upset someone.